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Mountain Biking

After weeks of searching for a bargain of a frame I found a brand new unused Saracen Mantra in green for a bargaintastic £195.

Now I just need to get it built up, abuse the hell out of it over the summer, get it serviced and if I prefer it to the Scout, sell the Scout or sell the mantra as a complete bike if it’s not for me.

It gets rid of a bunch of my “spares” whilst giving me something to do over the summer.

Win win.
 
If you come across a Saracen Ariel 60 in medium for a good price let me know lol.

I’d buy a new one if they had stock. I quite like the Saracen sizing. Want a frame to swap bits from my Merida.
 
I don’t know what’s going on at Saracen at the moment. Half the bikes are out of stock, a bunch of the bikes have been EOLd too. Perhaps something new is coming or perhaps something more sinister is on the horizon.. who knows
 
Anyone with Maven brakes & pads had squealing noises and fixed them?
I have done the following to try and stop my front brake making a loud noise and it's still not stopped it:mad:
  • Sanded old pads (Organic) and cleaned with disc brake cleaner
  • Cleaned disc rotar with disc brake
Continues to squeal, even on light brake pressure

So, I fitted
  • New SRAM disc rotor
  • New SRAM pads (Sintered)
No sound until half way down the 3rd run at BPW today, then squealing even louder than before :mad:

I've tried light braking, hard stop/start braking, continued hard braking.....all have done nothing to stop it. Now it's even worse (louder) than with the older kit fitted.
 
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Get rid of them (jest, sort of)

Not used mavens but in general I didn’t get on with sintered pads at all found them much worse for noise especially with MT7’s. Same with metallic pads on my old saints. They needed much more heat in them to work well.

Did you bed them in aggressively? Bit of water on them to create a paste to help bedding in process. I stick to organic myself and accept will have to replace more often and switch to winter pads when weather turns.
 
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Not bad for a £195 frame and a parts bin raid eh!
 
SpudMaster said:
Sintered pads tend to be more squealy, if that's a word :p and organic have always been the quietest in my experience.
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I just can't get my Hope T4 E4s to stay quiet, I'm wondering if it's the Uberbike Blue pads. Multiple times cleaning the disks, lubing the pistons, ensuring its all aligned, fresh pads, always end up howling. Either that or its just the way i brake, i do tend to drag them on sustained DH, maybe sintered would be better for me.
 
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robj20 said:
I just can't get my Hope T4 E4s to stay quiet, I'm wondering if it's the Uberbike Blue pads. Multiple times cleaning the disks, lubing the pistons, ensuring its all aligned, fresh pads, always end up howling. Either that or its just the way i brake, i do tend to drag them on sustained DH, maybe sintered would be better for me.
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I've not run Hope brakes in years, I think the last set I had were the Mono M4s. Before that I had C2s, Pros and Mono 6 TI's. Neither of which I remember being particularly squealy but reading online squealing seems to be associated with Hope brakes now.

Been running Magura MT7's with Disco Brakes green pads for the last few years.
 
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SpudMaster said:
I've not run Hope brakes in years, I think the last set I had were the Mono M4s. Before that I had C2s, Pros and Mono 6 TI's. Neither of which I remember being particularly squealy but reading online squealing seems to be associated with Hope brakes now.

Been running Magura MT7's with Disco Brakes green pads for the last few years.
Click to expand...
I hear good things about Magura and the new Hayes stuff as well, maybe ill try something other than Hope next time.

My Hope XCR Pro 2 are silent though but they dont take the same punishment, different pads and Galfer disks on those as well.
 
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SDK^ said:
Anyone with Maven brakes & pads had squealing noises and fixed them?
I have done the following to try and stop my front brake making a loud noise and it's still not stopped it:mad:
  • Sanded old pads (Organic) and cleaned with disc brake cleaner
  • Cleaned disc rotar with disc brake
Continues to squeal, even on light brake pressure

So, I fitted
  • New SRAM disc rotor
  • New SRAM pads (Sintered)
No sound until half way down the 3rd run at BPW today, then squealing even louder than before :mad:

I've tried light braking, hard stop/start braking, continued hard braking.....all have done nothing to stop it. Now it's even worse (louder) than with the older kit fitted.
Click to expand...


I had this issue with some srams years ago, spent ages fixing it. It was pretty simple though, I replaced them with some shimanos.
 
What do you guys think of the Trek marlin 7 gen 3 for canal rides, cycle paths and some trails such as dalby and gisburn red?
 
a66as said:
What do you guys think of the Trek marlin 7 gen 3 for canal rides, cycle paths and some trails such as dalby and gisburn red?
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I think it would be fine but I feel the Marlin makes more sense at the entry level models. If you're going for the highest end model it potentially makes more sense to buy the entry level Procaliber as it's similar in price.

Buy Procaliber Bike Collection | Procaliber XC Bikes MTB (GB)

Ride Trek Procaliber hardtail XC bikes built for race performance. Lightweight, fast and efficient on climbs and trails.
www.trekbikes.com www.trekbikes.com
 
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Been tinkering with my Commencal Meta today. That's it now on fox 38s as intended. Just needs a good shakedown at a bike park soon
 
SDK^ said:
Anyone with Maven brakes & pads had squealing noises and fixed them?
I have done the following to try and stop my front brake making a loud noise and it's still not stopped it:mad:
  • Sanded old pads (Organic) and cleaned with disc brake cleaner
  • Cleaned disc rotar with disc brake
Continues to squeal, even on light brake pressure

So, I fitted
  • New SRAM disc rotor
  • New SRAM pads (Sintered)
No sound until half way down the 3rd run at BPW today, then squealing even louder than before :mad:

I've tried light braking, hard stop/start braking, continued hard braking.....all have done nothing to stop it. Now it's even worse (louder) than with the older kit fitted.
Click to expand...
Could be fluid getting past the seals and contaminating the pads, had this on a set of Mavens got them replaced under warranty. Sold them on as I preferred the sharper feel of my old but trusty Saints I'd swapped in temporarily.
 
SpudMaster said:
Sintered pads tend to be more squealy, if that's a word :p and organic have always been the quietest in my experience.
Click to expand...
Sintered pads are made from metal particles fused together thats why.

metal on metal is going to squeel if its wet, with my bike they stop squeeling after a few seconds of braking as the pads friction creates heat and cooks off the moisture.
They last a hell of a lot longer than organic pads can be upto 2x in extreme cases, but I gues the rotor also wears down faster which is moore annoying to replace.
SDK^ said:
No sound until half way down the 3rd run at BPW today, then squealing even louder than before :mad:
Click to expand...


you need to use disck brake cleaner ont he pads and the rotors and do a proper break in period before you ride the bike normally.

You don;'t break in sintered pads wioth going faster and stopping hard. they need moderate heat and full cooling cycles between. you need to do moderate controlled braking to wear them in, or you just glaze the pads.
you might even wanna sand paper your pads after you clean them if they look really smooth ands glazed over
 
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